Inviting friends to a party to trick them into selling their motorbikes, 3 young men sentenced

The People's Court of Nam Sach District (Hai Duong) has just tried 3 defendants in Nam Sach, Thanh Ha, Hai Duong City for fraud and property appropriation.

On October 22, 2024, at a motel in Dong Phan village, Dong Lac commune (Nam Sach), Dinh Ngoc Chien (born in 2006 in Thai Tan commune, Nam Sach district) together with Vu Van D. (born in 2007 in Ai Quoc ward, Hai Duong city) and Pham Duc Phong (born in 2004, in Tan Viet commune, Thanh Ha district) defrauded and appropriated a Honda Airblade motorbike from Vu Minh Hai (born in 2003, in Quoc Tuan commune, Nam Sach district). The motorbike is worth more than 28.8 million VND.

The defendants and Mr. Hai had a friendship. The three defendants agreed that Chien would use the excuse of renting a new room to invite Mr. Hai to his room for a meal. When Mr. Hai arrived, he would lie to Mr. Hai and let D. borrow his motorbike to buy food and drinks so that Mr. Hai would give D. the motorbike and then take it.

On the evening of October 22, 2024, Chien invited Hai and some friends to his rented room for a meal. During the meal, a female friend could not drink alcohol, so D. borrowed Hai's car to buy drinks and did not return.

After eating, Mr. Hai could not find D. to claim the motorbike so he went home. Chien and Phong went to the foot of Han bridge to meet D., together they removed the rearview mirror, opened the trunk of Mr. Hai's motorbike and found inside a citizen identification card and a motorbike registration certificate.

The next day, the three subjects sold the car at a store in Tu Ky for 22 million VND and lied to the store owner that Phong bought it from Hai and wanted to sell it because he was bored with it. The car was then bought and resold to many people.

The above amount was divided among the subjects, Chien kept 19 million VND, D. kept 1 million VND, Phong kept 2 million VND.

After many days of not seeing D. return the motorbike, Mr. Hai realized he had been scammed, so on November 9, 2024, he went to Dong Lac Commune Police, Nam Sach District to report.

Upon learning of the incident, Mr. Vu Van Luc, D.'s father, spent 31.5 million VND to redeem the motorbike and handed it over to Nam Sach District Police to remedy the consequences and return it to Mr. Hai. On December 27, 2024, Nam Sach District Police returned the motorbike to Mr. Hai.

Chien, Phong, and D. influenced the family to compensate Mr. Hai with 5 million VND, 2 million VND, and 26.5 million VND, respectively.

In the above case, Chien was the instigator, while D. and Phong were accomplices.

For the crime of fraud and appropriation of property under Article 174 of the Penal Code, Chien was sentenced to 16 months in prison; Phong to 12 months in prison; D. to 9 months in prison and given a suspended sentence, with a probationary period of 18 months.